Female teachers are “significantly” less likely to progress to being headteachers than their male counterparts, analysis from the Department for Education (DfE) suggests.
The newly published figures show how female teachers make up a higher proportion of the workforce but that women are still less represented in leadership positions.
In primary schools in 2020, female teachers made up 85 per cent of the workforce compared with 74 per cent of headteachers, while in secondaries, the figures were 63 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively.
The data from the DfE also shows that men become headteachers earlier in their careers than women.
The analysis, released today as part of the DfE’s School leadership in England 2010 to 2020: characteristics and trends paper, shows that, on average in 2020, men took up their first headship role in primary schools after 16 years of experience, whereas for women, it was 19 years.
In secondaries, it was 20 years for men and 21 for women.
With leadership roles generally, the report does note that the gender gap closed a little between between 2010 and 2020, over which time the proportion of such roles filled by women has steadily increased from 67 per cent to 70 per cent.
The analysis says: “Female teachers are significantly less likely to be promoted to senior leadership or headship than male teachers.
“Controlling for other factors, in 2019, female teachers were 14 per cent less likely to be promoted to senior leadership and 20 per cent less likely to be promoted to headship than male teachers.”
Teachers from minority ethnic backgrounds ‘under-represented’ in leadership roles
Between 2010 and 2020, the report says that the proportion of leadership positions held by minority ethnic teachers steadily increased - from 5 per cent to 7 per cent for headteachers in primary schools, and from 7 per cent to 9 per cent for headteachers in secondary schools.
It adds that generally, teachers from minority ethnic backgrounds are “under-represented in leadership roles compared to the wider teaching population”, but says this is improving.
It shows that during the period from 2015 to 2019, teachers from minority ethnic backgrounds - aside from white minority ethnic backgrounds - were 18 per cent less likely to be promoted to middle leadership than White British teachers, 16 per cent less likely to be promoted from middle to senior leadership, and 21 per cent less likely to be promoted from senior leadership to headship.
Part-time teachers ‘significantly’ less likely to be promoted to leadership
The DfE says analysis shows that in 2020, part-time teachers were 45 per cent less likely than full-time teachers to be promoted to headteacher, 43 per cent less likely to be promoted to senior leader and 51 per cent less likely to be promoted to middle leader.
However, it adds that the proportion of leaders who worked in part-time roles did rise from 7 per cent to 11 per cent between 2010 and 2020.
